65 nanometer

The 65 nanometer (65 nm) process is the next milestone in semiconductor manufacturing and fabrication. The term 65 nm denotes the width of the smallest circuit wires on the semiconductor (for reference, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus [HIV] is around 120nm in diameter and a human red blood cell is typically 6000–8000nm). Companies currently pursuing 65nm fabrication include AMD (collaborating with IBM) and Intel. At 65 nm linewidths are extremely small presenting significant problems due to electron transfer between tracks. This is called leakage and increases power consumption as well as heat output.

Intel are predicting a 75% cut in leakage of the 'Prescott' Pentium 4 core. The Prescott core on it's original 90 nm process was widely criticised at launch due to high leakage (and therefore heat output and power consumption). This leakage cut is expected to be achieved by the use of a second generation strained silicon fabrication technique and a new low-k dielectric insulator. Intel presented an engineering sample of a 65 nm 'Yonah' core Pentium M at the 2005 Spring IDF.

AMD and IBM are yet to release specific details of their joint strategy for the 65 nm process.

See also

• 90 nanometer

References

• Intel to cut Prescott leakage by 75% at 65nm
• Engineering Sample of the 'Yonah' core Pentium M